Israel Appreciates Activities of U.S. Jewish Groups in Countering the Arab Boycott

April 28, 1975

JERUSALEM (Apr. 27)

“There is much appreciation in Israel for the activities of American Jewish organizations in general, and of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith in particular, in countering the Arab boycott.” Dan Halperin, adviser to the Finance Minister, stressed today to the JTA. (It had been inadvertently reported in Friday’s Bulletin that Halperin had “chided” some U.S. Jewish organizations’ role in fighting the boycott.) These organizations work at their own initiative, and their efforts parallel those of Israel itself.

Halperin, in the JTA interview published Friday, recorded the fact that Israel had asked Chase Manhattan to open a branch here and the bank had refused. He did not, as inadvertently implied, chide the ADL for concentrating its efforts on those firms and banking institutions which have had ties with Israel in the past rather than working on a broader spectrum of financial and business concerns.